Friday, 25 May 2012

Another clip from the Polished Project film 'Dave' which is on the way. This clip shows off what a nice climb New Base Line is!

I was home from Switzerland for all of one night before driving south to speak at various Cotswold stores around England and Wales. After the first talks I have a couple of days off now and then to Chester, Bouremouth, Islington - details here).

I spent a long time looking forward to the Swiss bouldering trip and enjoyed it a lot. Now I’m going to be heading home soon I’m pretty sure it’s time for some routes again. I’ll need to start from scratch with endurance for tries on my Steall project. I also need to put some time into planning more trips this year.

On my last day I finally managed to get a session on Practice of the Wild (8C) before I left Magic Wood. It was dry for the first time since I’ve been here. It’s definitely the most inspiring line I’ve seen in the woods and I’d be keen to return sometime to work on it more. It has definitely reminded me not to be afraid to try the harder stuff in bouldering even though I struggle a lot with indoor climbing. For sure this is partly down to my training diet of mostly climbing outdoors - I can usually get more weight on my feet than most on real rock. But a big part of it is my sweaty fingertips and general inability to perform well even in moderately warm conditions. I’ve resisted this conclusion for a long time, but it’s probably better if I just accept it and start working with rather than against it.

My body also feels in good shape to start some basic finger strength training again this year. I’ll have to be careful to build up slowly. That, together with some other changes in my training will hopefully reap some good rewards down the line. In the short term, I’ll see where the mood takes me when I get home and probably go exploring some of the great places I’ve still never been to.

2 comments:

"a big part of it is my sweaty fingertips and general inability to perform well even in moderately warm conditions"

at a much lower climbing level, i thought to be a technical master...until this winter i climbed in a gym having serious heating issues: my performances were instantly comparable with my best outdoor days!!! lol.

on a more serious note i wonder if there's some subtlety in terms of relying more or less on skin friction, that can be trained in advanced climbers.

as i'm in the process of becoming a climbing instructor in france it is an interesting subject with regards to comp training (a not-so-uncommon job over here given the powerful federation and rich comp schedule at all levels)